March Madness is fast approaching as conference tournaments are just about to get started for some of the mid and low major conferences. The West Coast Conference tournament gets going on Wednesday with the play-in game. The Saint Mary's Gaels have a bye through to Saturday's semifinals where they will face the winner of the eventual 4/5/8/9 matchup.
Saint Mary's wrapped up their regular season with a hard-fought road win over the University of San Francisco Dons. The win capped a 25-5 regular season and 14-2 conference season for Saint Mary's. They ended Gonzaga's recent run of WCC titles and will head into the conference tournament as the number one seed.
The Gaels slid in last week's college basketball rankings after an 0-2 week. They plummeted to the bottom of the "Others receiving votes" category in the AP poll, while only dropping to No. 23 in the Coaches Poll. They will gain some ground, but with eight teams ahead of them, it is unlikely for SMC to climb back into the Top 25. In the Coaches Poll, No. 22 Temple, No. 21 New Mexico, No. 18 Notre Dame and No. 16 Florida State all dropped at least one game this week. The Gaels will probably climb ahead of Temple and New Mexico, and could potentially move past the Irish and/or Seminoles heading into their conference tournament.